NCP issues show-cause notice to Shalinitai Patil

The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) in Maharashtra on Friday issued a show cause notice to its high-profile MLA Shalinitai Patil for publicly speaking up against the reservation policy. Ms Patil has to reply to the notice within seven days, NCP Maharashtra’s general secretary Gurunath Kulkarni told the media.

Ms Patil, the MLA from Koregaon in Satara district and wife of the late Vasantdada Patil — one of the longest serving chief ministers of Maharashtra — has been very vocal in her criticism of the Centre’s move to extend 27.5 % reservation for OBCs in the central academic institutes such as IIT and IIM.

In fact, she lauded Shiv Sena chief Balasaheb Thackeray for his blunt stand against reservations on the basis of caste. Mr Thackeray, it may be recalled, had instead supported reservation on the basis of economic criteria.

Ms Patil has also criticised the policy on a couple of occasions from a public platform and currently she is touring various parts of Maharashtra to mobilise support for her views. The NCP has merely been a spectator while all this was going on.

The notice issued to Patil on Friday accuses her of publicly speaking up against the party’s policies and ideology. “Ms Patil was summoned to a party meeting once and cautioned against taking such a stand. But she did not mend her ways,” Mr Kulkarni said.

PWD minister Chhagan Bhujbal and one of the powerful NCP leaders, has been the party’s most vocal face supporting reservations. Last month, Bhujbal met the HRD minister Arjun Singh in Delhi to extend his support to the reservation policy.